The temperature inside the Infinity Castle was bitterly cold.
On the ice throne at the center of the lotus pond, the smile on Doma's face remained unchanged, like a flawless mask.
He looked at Shinobu Kocho, who was shielded behind Rin, his rainbow-colored eyes shimmering with curiosity and mockery.
"What a domineering protector of flowers."
Doma lightly rotated his wrist. The golden iron fan unfolded at his fingertips, covering half his face. "However, in an enclosed space like this, human lungs are quite fragile."
He gave the fan a gentle wave.
"Blood Demon Art: Lotus Leaf Ice."
Fine, dust-like ice crystals spread through the chamber with the motion of the fan, drifting like a hazy morning mist.
They were beautiful, yet lethal. Inhaling even the slightest amount would instantly freeze and tear apart human lungs.
Shinobu instinctively held her breath, preparing to cover her mouth and nose with her haori.
Rin, standing in front of her, didn't even spare the approaching ice mist a glance. He simply drew in a breath, his chest expanding slightly.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
Blazing crimson flames burst from his mouth.
The massive fireball, several meters wide and carrying searing heat, slammed directly into the drifting ice mist.
Sizzle—!
A sharp burst of steam filled the air.
The ice crystals, capable of freezing lungs in an instant, were vaporized the moment they touched the flames. The temperature in the chamber surged, and even the crystal-clear lotus pond began to melt and drip.
The smile on Doma's face faltered slightly.
He lowered his fan, staring at the completely unharmed pair as his expression grew more serious.
"Ahh~ Not using a Nichirin Blade, yet able to spit fire… No wonder Akaza-dono suffered at your hands."
Doma cast aside his earlier disdain. Holding two golden fans, he brought them together in front of him.
"Blood Demon Art: Crystalline Divine Child."
The cold air gathered once more.
Five ice dolls, each half the size of a person and identical in appearance to Doma, materialized out of thin air, surrounding Rin.
These constructs possessed independent awareness and could even use Blood Demon Arts equal in power to the original.
The five miniature Domas waved their fans in unison. Fierce winds howled as sharp ice vines surged from every direction, sealing off all of Rin's escape routes.
"Boring tricks."
Rin let out a faint sigh.
His right hand, resting on the hilt at his waist, suddenly drew the blade.
Shing~!
The black blade left its sheath, dark purplish-black lightning patterns flowing across its surface.
Rin's figure blurred, leaving only an afterimage where he had stood.
In the next instant, five crisp shattering sounds rang out across the ice chamber.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The five ice dolls, just about to unleash their Blood Demon Arts, froze mid-motion.
A clean line appeared across each of their necks.
The next moment, all five heads slid off in unison, their bodies collapsing into glittering fragments of ice.
"What?"
Doma's rainbow-colored eyes widened at last.
He hadn't even seen the sword being drawn, yet his Divine Children had already been completely destroyed.
Before he could react, that terrifying lightning aura had already reached him.
Rin had crossed the lotus pond and now stood atop the ice throne.
A black arc of sword light swept upward.
Thud.
Doma felt a sudden chill across his shoulders.
His famed reaction speed was utterly useless against that strike.
Both of his arms, still gripping the golden fans, were severed cleanly at the shoulders, falling onto the ice along with splashes of blood.
"My, my… This is truly… eh?"
Doma looked down at his empty shoulders, about to rely on an Upper Rank's regenerative ability to regrow his arms.
But nothing happened.
No flesh sprouted from the wounds.
Instead, a layer of abyssal black flames clung to the severed stumps.
The flames burned silently, without heat, yet devoured the demon cells used for regeneration with ruthless precision.
No matter how he forced his life force to surge, the black fire remained like an incurable rot, sealing off all possibility of recovery.
"They won't grow back?"
Rin held his sword, looking down at Doma seated on the ice throne.
For the first time, a trace of panic appeared on Doma's face.
In over a hundred years of existence, he had never experienced such a sensation.
He had always believed himself to be an emotionless observer.
Yet at this moment, his body trembled uncontrollably.
It was fear, born from pure instinct.
He wanted to retreat, to create distance.
But the instant he lifted his head, his gaze met a pair of scarlet eyes.
Within Rin's pupils, a hexagram intertwined with three tomoe rotated slowly, like two bottomless vortexes that seemed to swallow the soul.
Genjutsu: Sharingan.
Hum.
A dull resonance echoed through Doma's mind.
The ice chamber, the lotus pond, and Rin before him all shattered in an instant.
He found himself suspended upside down from a massive tree, surrounded by a dark crimson void.
His body lost all sensation. He couldn't move even a single finger.
Within this mental world woven by the Sharingan, time was stretched to infinity.
Outside,
Doma's body knelt stiffly on the melting ice.
The light had faded from his rainbow-colored eyes, leaving them dull and vacant.
The black flames on his severed arms had already been withdrawn by Rin, yet he remained frozen in place, like a statue. Only faint, uneven breaths escaped his throat.
"I've taken away his hands and his ability to resist. His mind is completely sealed. Even if the sky collapsed, he wouldn't be able to move."
Rin sheathed the Kusanagi sword, then turned to look at Shinobu Kocho, who had been standing quietly by the lotus pond.
"He's yours."
Shinobu stared at the kneeling, utterly defenseless Upper Rank Two.
For this day, she had imagined countless brutal endings.
Half a month ago, she had even prepared herself to fill her body with wisteria poison and let herself be devoured, seeking to drag him down with her.
But she had never imagined this moment of revenge would arrive so easily... so unreal.
She took a slow breath, then stepped forward.
Across the shattered ice, she walked toward him, one step at a time.
With each step, a memory surfaced in her mind.
Her older sister Kanae's pale yet gentle smile before her death.
"Shinobu, leave the Demon Slayer Corps. Live on as an ordinary girl."
Her sister's final words echoed softly in her ears.
Shinobu stopped in front of Doma.
Looking down at the face she despised to her very core, she slowly drew her uniquely shaped short sword.
This time, she did not use her usual wisteria poison.
Instead, she took out a syringe filled with a pale violet, transparent liquid from the special pouch at her waist.
It was her ultimate poison, created using Rin's Yang Release chakra, combined with highly concentrated wisteria and Tamayo's human transformation serum.
"..Doma."
Shinobu Kocho's voice was calm.
There was no anger in it—only a cold stillness, born from the release of a long-cherished obsession.
"Didn't you like to call devouring people 'salvation'?"
She gripped the syringe and, without hesitation, plunged it into Doma's carotid artery, pushing the entire contents in.
"Take your hypocrisy and repent in hell."
____
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